On Politicoholic, I came across a post on 25 Ways to use your blog and social media to create change.

I was struck by the weakly Liberal tone of many of the suggestions. Perhaps it's just the self-congratulatory attitude of self-importance permeating it that annoys me. The whole list reeks of "Look at me! I'm making a big change in the world! And I'm telling you all about it!"

While educating people has value, it isn't the same as actually effecting change with sweat and physical action. Most blogs are the equivalent of parlor pontification.

I started to wonder what a more radical version might look like, a version that put more emphasis on doing things in the world rather than just blogging about doing things. So here is my first attempt at such a list. It's repetitious in places but it's intended to mirror the original list linked above. I just re-wrote each numbered point as I came to it. It's not perfect but it's mine.

1. Start simple: Steal from large corporations.

2. Join an activist group, a group that performs direct action.

3. Or if there isn't a group with politics or an activist philosophy you agree with, create your own. Form a small group of trusted people and collectively decide on goals and actions.

4. Videoblog an interview with someone with radical political views. Ask them about strategies to transform society.

5. Share a meal with a stranger, someone not like you.

6. Has someone you love been affected by class warfare or capitalism's indifference to individual suffering?? Share your story and raise awareness.

7. Demand change from government and corporations. Be specific.

8. Petitions are rarely effective at changing institutions or governments. Do not delude yourself that they are useful.

9. Vlog a political demonstration. If there is a strong police presence, show it.

10. Twitter is a distraction. Don't mistake it for action.

11. Write about your experiences and concrete methods for transforming society, not in the future but now, today.

12. Instead of writing on how global human rights issues can be alleviated, volunteer at a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, a free medical clinic. Find out how human rights are being violated in your neighborhood.

13. Participate in a political demonstration or protest. Get arrested.

14. Invite someone who is a political radical to mentor you.

15. Discuss how direct action can change society more than blogging.

16. Instead of correcting injustice through the proxies of non-profit and advocacy organizations, see if there is anything you can do in person. Be a participant, not a donor.

17. Highlight grassroots organizations.

18. Be involved in social justice/human rights efforts.

19. Create an effective means to implement social justice.

20. Discuss how school curricula stifles and suppresses citizen responsibility in students. Start independent student-led and student-run organizations. Empower students, don't patronize them.

21. Find out who profits from wars. Develop an analysis of imperialism and how it relates to colonialism. Apply it to the United States foreign policy over the last century.

22. Ask your readers to create a revolution, even a small one.

23. Spend less time blogging and reading blogs. Spend more time acting, deliberately and radically.

24. Participate.

25. Blogging has limited influence, on you and others. Acting transforms you and society deeply. Never mistake theory for practice. Do it. Do it now.

Labels: blogging, blogs, direct action, lists, political, politics

When I first started blogging, I settled into Blogger because it was easy and fast to set up.

That was over four years ago and 1,100 posts ago.

Since then, I've added a few customizations to the code, sitemeters and such. Then I began noticing that DemiOrator was throwing up pop-ups when it loaded. I ignored it for a long time but I just figured out it was one of the site statistics scripts so I've deleted it from the code. This seems to have solved the annoying problem. And I'm kind of pissed about it. I should have known that they would take the opportunity to make some money but I still don't like it and particularly not the use of pop-up ads.

This brings me to the current rub: I've made noises before about switching to different blogging software and I think the time is ripe now. You know, get a domain and host it myself.

My web host has Wordpress as an automatic install. It seems like a good platform but if anyone has input, I'd love to hear from you.

I've only the most rudimentary of HTML coding skills and still have trouble keeping CSS coding straight. I need to get better sometime so why not now? Hardly a resounding carpe diem but that's life.

Labels: blogging, blogs, writing

My other commitments have been sucking at my time so I admit my reading of blogs has been severely limited over the last year or two. I'm trying to sample some of my old favorites as well as reach out to some new ones.

This has brought me back to Frameshop and a renewed appreciation of the analysis provided there. I never leave Frameshop without substance to chew over. Some may find it a little abstract but I never do. For example, his recent post Frameshop: The Winning Frame has Emerged examines the various frames used by various candidates in the campaign.

Here's his take on the Democrats' frames:

Opening Frames: 'American Dream' and 'Hope'
The 2008 election started out with multiple competing frames from Democrats and Republicans. The largest opening frames, however, came from the Clinton campaign and the Obama Campaign.

From the start, Clinton set the idea of restoring the 'American Dream,' and idea that was fundamentally economic. During the course of the primary, Clinton arrived at a new way to express her opening frame by talking about 'the invisible.' It was a very convincing idea, particularly as the economy went south. Despite the ideological statements of the Republicans, a majority of Americans felt that the economy had left them behind and that nobody cared about their troubles. The 'American Dream' frame became 'the invisible' and Hillary Clinton won millions of votes as a result.

The Obama campaign offered a different opening frame in the idea of 'Hope.' In many ways, 'Hope' was a much stronger frame than 'American dream' because it spoke to larger questions about the future of the country as a whole. By talking about 'Hope,' Obama was talking about American idealism beyond the mechanics of building family wealth. 'Hope' was also a more forward looking frame because it implicitly acknowledged new challenges that Americans face--such as global warming, conservation, technology, international interdependence, and so forth. The 'American Dream,' was more nostalgic. The problem with 'Hope' as we discovered in the primary, was that it was difficult to re-emphasize in terms of the economy when that became the key issue in the primaries. The middle ground framing of 'more people participating' that was so successful for Obama in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, became less successful for his campaign in Pennsylvania. The better frame in idealistic terms, 'Hope' did not readily present a way to ground that idealism in the concrete issues that contingency was forcing into the election.

Obama won the nomination, but the sense coming out of that long contest was that he was left with a very big challenge of finding an economic foundation for his 'hope' frame. And even by the time of the DNC, it did not seem like that new frame had emerged quite yet.

Labels: analysis, blogs, Dems, frames, Hillary, Obama

Nothing shows bloggy love like finding new blogs to share. Some of these are old faves, others are new to me. The DemiOrator sez: Visit them and spread the love.

• Pandagon
• PressThink
• Lavender Newswire
• Red Queen
• Don't Touch the Pink Stuff!
• Evil Nerdy Feminism
• Heartless Bitches International
• Donna Darko
• Racialicious
• No Blood for Hubris

Labels: blogroll, blogs, feminism, gay, politics

As I was reminded when Skippy the Bush Kangaroo mentioned me in a post, part of blogging is passing on the love to other blogs. Although I just did a post scouting some other blogs, I am compelled to do it again.

Today, we are all bloggers. Or something like that.

Cruising through Feministing's blogroll, I rounded up the following blogs of interest: (Er, um, not cruising... uh, not like that, really. Oh, no! My recurring foot-in-mouth disease!)

Feminista! A Journal of Feminist Construction appears to be an online journal with articles such as Who's Co-opting Feminism? by Christy Burbidge and A Challenge to the Feminist Community by Laura Kamienski.

Feminist Law Professors is a mix of stuff, from news stories to conference announcements to letters.

Radical Doula says "Let’s start with a list of things that I identify with which led me to use this classification: doula, pro-choice, lesbian, latina, birth activist, progressive, gender non-conformist." She posts on all these issues.

Racialicious is a group blog concerned with stories on race and racism.

Pseudo-Adrienne's Liberal-Feminist Bias will entertain you and drive you to tears. (Hyperbolic? Me? Never!) She has an extensive blogroll which I'm itching to explore.

Our Bodies, Our Blog is focused on birth control and health info. From their About Us page:

Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS), also known as the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective (BWHBC), is a nonprofit, public interest women’s health education, advocacy, and consulting organization. Beginning in 1970 with the publication of the first edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves, OBOS has inspired the women’s health movement by:
* Producing books that makes accurate health and medical information accessible to a broad audience by weaving women’s stories into a framework of practical, clearly written text;
* Identifying and collaborating with exemplary individuals and organizations that provide services, generate research and policy analysis, and organize for social change;
* Inspiring and empowering women to become engaged in the political aspects of sustaining good health for themselves and their communities.

Dru Blood is a blog with a little of this and that, environmental concerns, personal stuff, parenting. Check her out.

And if any of the above bloggers are unhappy with my characterizations of their blogs, I plead laziness and ADD. It's a tough world for bloggers.

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Listening to: "Must Have More" by L7

Labels: blogroll, blogs, links

I recently took a hard look at my blogroll and culled the deadwood out. Deadwood means blogs which haven't had posts for months, either on hiatus or obviously abandoned. I was embarrassed to find quite a few of these, some dead since 2006. I've obviously not being keeping up on my blog reading.

Time to do a little exploration and begin adding some fun new links.

The Wild Hunt is a sort of Neopagan newswire and commentary blog. "A modern Pagan perspective" is the subtitle. The reporting and links seem to be of high quality. Recommended. The blogroll on it led me to the following.

A Heathen Blog which hasn't been updated since April 2007 but has lots of links. "The purpose of this project is to provide visibility and exposure for Heathen/Asatru perspectives. In this regard, it is meant to inform and even entertain people from all walks - from the ‘old-school’ Heathens, to those who are getting their first real look at this religious path."

Blog o' Gnosis has long posts, thoughful and expansive.

Letter from Hardscrabble Creek - A Pagan Writer's Blog by Chas S. Clifton ruminates on The Occult Experience, a documentary from the late 1980s here.

That's enough for now. Go now and blog-hop in peace.

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Listening to: "I Don't Need No Doctor" by Humble Pie

Labels: blogroll, blogs, links, pagan

It never fails: Reading I Blame the Patriarchy invariably gives me a warm feeling in my heart, a comforting glow to know that excellent and unstinting radical feminist analysis thrives on the internet. I know I regularly gush over Twisty's posts and general perspective but apparently I can't help doing it.

Current amusement comes from recent posts on marriage: The post on marriage and The post on the post on marriage. Ascerbic and astute and funny. Recommended.

Update: Don't pass up the post titled Pose of the week.

Labels: blogs, feminism, marriage

As readers can probably tell, my serious tone and high-minded attitude is on semi-vacation. This leaves me poking around for funny or inconsequential bits to post here. So here's a link I like.

The ever-wonderful Bitch Ph.D. brought to my attention the handy and amusing blog passive-aggressive notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers. The drama is wonderful, consisting of slices of strange life, often with a little bit of explanation to provide context. Tres amusing.

Labels: blogs, links